‘Master of Reality’: The album Henry Rollins evaluates all “other rhythm sections by”
The freewheeling ideology of the punk position can be summed up no better than in the life and times of Henry Rollins. Fronting Black Flag in their peak period throughout the 1980s, his sound was very much infused with sonic inspirations hailing from the bands that paved his path, from the Ramones to the New York Dolls. Then, venturing into the lands of artistry, poetry, and spoken word, Rollins is a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to creativity, making him a stalwart of solid advice to anyone on the scene.
Rollins will have seen his fair share of rock acts come and go, and in this sense, you can count on his word when he says something is worth taking note of. To that end, there is an album from one metal fraternity in particular that this artistic nomad views as the cream of the crop, and that should make any other wannabe band sit up and listen.
When previously dissecting his favourite albums to ever be released in the world, Rollins singled out everyone’s favourite Brummie heavy metal heavyweights as providing the guiding light to his own appreciation of music. Of course, it could only be Black Sabbath.
In particular, the band’s seminal 1971 effort, Master of Reality, is a force to be reckoned with in sonic terms, according to Rollins. He said of the band’s power that: “Bill Ward and Geezer Butler are one of the greatest, if not undermentioned, rhythm sections in rock.”
He then went on to laud the album further by enthusing: “This album not only has Tony Iommi capturing one of the greatest tones ever committed to tape but Ward and Butler swinging as hard as they’re crushing it. This is a perfectly balanced bit of playing. This is the record I evaluate other rhythm sections by.”
It’s high praise indeed for an album that Rollins sees as somewhat of a pedestal for rock and roll – but at the time of its release, his opinion was pretty much in isolation. Critics roundly panned Master of Reality for being monotonous and hardly propelling Black Sabbath to new heights. In more recent times, those harsh assessments have been revoked in favour of a view that shows the album for what it really is – a warping blueprint displaying the true dysfunctional brilliance of rock music.
As one of life’s great unanswered mysteries, we’ll never know whether the unrelenting campaigning influence of artistic bigwigs like Rollins had the deciding influence on turning the critics’ heads when it came to Black Sabbath, but it does seem likely. Having traversed every creative landscape from music to literature to comedy and art, Rollins’ casting view on the cultural world is one that is undeniable and unremittingly on the money.
For Black Sabbath’s part, as the curtains are finally beginning to close on their seismic career, they can look back on figures like Rollins with gratitude for helping to fly their rebellious flag along the way.
